Overview

This report provides exploratory and preliminary correlation analyses between sex hormones and T2 unretouched, raw hippocampal subfield data from the Healthy Aging Study sample (subjects 333 - 437, with 438 appended).

Black diamond point are the group means. Highlighted in purple triangle point and purple line is subject 438. Note that subject 438 was on estrogen HRT at the time of her scan and blood draw.

Cleaning data steps included:

  1. Filter participants that have T2 subfield data from scan
  2. Select sex hormone measures from when scan was conducted
  3. Correct left and right volumes with TIV
  4. Average left and right volumes to get an average measure for each subfield region

Sample size:

  • Men = 24
  • Women = 63 (24 pre, 20 peri, 19 post)

T2 Subfield Volume

CA1

Subject 438: average volume of 0.545094

Structural Comparison

Hormone Correlation by Reproductive Status

Hormone Correlation by Sex

CA2/3

Subject 438: average volume of 0.2098802

Structural Comparison

Hormone Correlation by Reproductive Status

Hormone Correlation by Sex

DG

Subject 438: average volume of 0.6703311

Structural Comparison

Hormone Correlation by Reproductive Status

Hormone Correlation by Sex

ERC

Subject 438: average volume of 0.4225437

Structural Comparison

Hormone Correlation by Reproductive Status

Hormone Correlation by Sex

PHC

Subject 438: average volume of 1.432311

Structural Comparison

Hormone Correlation by Reproductive Status

Hormone Correlation by Sex

PRC

Subject 438: average volume of 1.574246

Structural Comparison

Hormone Correlation by Reproductive Status

Hormone Correlation by Sex

SUB

Subject 438: average volume of 0.3014333

Structural Comparison

Hormone Correlation by Reproductive Status

Hormone Correlation by Sex

Summary

  • Subregion volumes for women and men were generally normally distributed. There appears to be two women whose SUB volumes appear to be outliers.

  • No significant trends seen in Pearson correlations for CA1, CA23, DG volumes.

  • No significant trends seen in Pearson correlations for estradiol, testosterone, or DHEAS.

  • No significant trends seen in Pearson correlations for men.

  • For progesterone, it was significantly positively correlated with ERC volume for post-menopausal women (p = 0.013) and significantly negatively correlated with ERC volume for pre-menopausal women (p = 0.035). However, the overall correlation between progesterone and ERC volume among women altogether was not significant. Progesterone was also marginally, positively correlated with PHC volume in women (p = 0.052), but could just be an effect of the outlier where a peri-menopausal woman has a very highe progesterone level (driving the overall trend and significance among peris, p = 0.036).

  • For FSH, it was significantly negatively correlated with PHC volume for pre-menopausal women (p = 0.04), but the overall correlation between FSH and PHC olume for women was not significant.

  • For SHBG, it was significantly negatively correlated with PRC volume for pre-menopausal women (p = 0.045) and marginally negatively correlated with women overall (p = 0.068). SHBG was also marginally negatively correlated with SUB volume for post-menopausal women (p = 0.068).